G.Skill Eco modules reviewed

Index

We had no high hopes of reducing reduce power-consumption with such modules. Here are the results with the Intel P55 platform. While in idle the gap is very small, under load we were able to shave off some Watts.

Conclusion

The most dramatic advantage we experienced was not the lower power consumption which is nice to have, but the much lower temperatures of the modules. While even 1.65V modules can get quite hot, this kit stayed very cool during all the tests.

While we did not test for higher speeds, because we think tighter timings are much more effective, you can go either way as you see fit. With 1.42V we achieved very good results, especially on the AMD platform, so we hope G.Skill is changing the package and include the AM3 platform too.

The only drawback are boards without proper BIOS updates. Meanwhile many vendors are allowing lower memory voltages, but won't detect the modules correctly. We hope in a month or two this issue will be solved. Make sure your board supports memory voltages below 1.50V.

Compared to the standard 1.65V kits you have to pay a price-premium of about €10,-, but at €97,- this kit can not be considered expensive. Newegg is now promoting this kit, so for $104,99 you can't do anything wrong. If you don't care for ultimate speeds the same kit with CL9-9-9-24-2T is available for only €80,-/$94,99 which is a very competitive price. We like it very much and we recommend it to any Intel 1156 or AMD AM3 user.